2008 June

Archive for June, 2008

Normally, I’d expect an email press release notifying us of the winners of this year’s Origins Awards (copied below). Had to search them out myself, instead. Congrats to all the winners, which include Classic Battletech as Best Miniatures Game, and Aces & Eights for Best Roleplaying Game. There’s some great winners on the list this year, and the full nominee list has even more great titles. I’ll say it again: I called the Zombie Fluxx win.(more…)

The date for next year’s Free RPG Day has been decided – June 20, 2009. As with any event of this scale, this year’s event had its strong points and not so strong points, as some of you have already mentioned. We’ll discuss our observations of this year’s event in our next OgreCave Audio Report.(more…)

Paizo Publishing announced today the hiring of Sean K. Reynolds, well known in the D&D community for his work on the 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and Monster Manual. Reynolds will be working as a developer on the Pathfinder and Pathfinder Chronicles adventure lines. The full release is below.(more…)

First the extremely successful boardgame, then the recent card game, and now Days of Wonder‘s Ticket to Ride has been translated over to Xbox Live. I’m not sure the award-winning game (which took the Spiel Des Jahres ’04 and an Origins Award in ’05, to name a couple) is fully conveyed by the amusing video at the Playful Entertainment site, but still, it’s good to see more quality tabletop titles reaching a broader audience. Please note I’ve refrained from stating the game has left or arrived at any sort of station – you’re welcome.

In our latest episode, we talk with special guest Aldo Ghiozzi of Impressions and Free RPG Day about this Saturday’s second annual event. In just one year, the participating publishers have multiplied, and Aldo tells us both what to look for at local stores, and what it has taken to make it happen. Then we lapse into talk of other industry trends and releases before wrapping up.

A bit before this whole 4e thing, Mike and our old friend Chris picked apart what could’ve been a much better prelaunch marketing push, especially from the retailer point of view. Then Mike and I discussed several other recent industry news bits, including the Upper Deck layoffs and the latest Fundable pledge drive to keep Delta Green products flowing. Have a listen, and let us know what you think.

So WizKids is moving its offices to Topps’ location in NY, “focusing” on just a few lines, and by year’s end, “aligning its staff with its product portfolio.” Uhh… good times. Rumors still abound that MechWarrior has life ahead of it, but you’ll note that it isn’t in the list included here. Maybe it’s moving somewhere. The funniest/saddest thing in the announcement from WK prez Lax Chandra below is the citation of “rumors of a 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie” and its being “one of the most anticipated movies of all time.” As Jack Sparrow himself has said in a thousand Photoshopped LiveJournal icons: O RLY?(more…)

The long-awaited Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Game System License is finally available. The potential red flag of the Quality and Standards clause is still there, broad as all outdoors, and Wizards seems to be giving itself the right to sue any licensee and hand them the legal bills, regardless of judgement. Still, at least something is publicly posted, finally. The GSL still holds products released under its guidelines to begin selling no sooner than October 1st.

Known for the Amber Diceless RPG and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, as well as his contributions to several other systems, Erick Wujcik, 57, passed away last Saturday after struggling with pancreatic and liver cancer. An excellent tribute and obituary by Kevin Siembieda of Palladium Books tells of the other hats Wujcik donned during his career, and there’s a page for the birthday party where he was awarded a 2008 Ennies Lifetime Achievement Award in January. OgreCave’s best wishes go out to Erick’s family and friends.

Well, okay, what everyone seemed to think it would be, back when 4E was first announced with all the tantalizing screenshots and online play noise. I guess we can give WotC PR due credit for successfully reassuring the world that D&D would, in fact, continue to be playable on un-augmented, analog tabletops… of course, it helps that the online playtable still doesn’t exist. Nor any of the other D&D Insider components besides the online Dragon & Dungeon magazines. D&D Insider News has this to say on its scheduling, and nothing more: “In April, the creators of the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game traveled to various cities across the United States to meet with reporters, talk about the new game, and unveil the suite of online tools that will be available to D&D Insider subscribers later this year.” (Emphasis mine.) Hate to say it, but my Master Tools sense is tingling. To be fair, I’m looking around for past promises that the playtable would be ready for 4E’s release and I can’t actually find one right now (help would be appreciated – by me, not WotC, I’m sure), but this strengthens my conviction that the main flaw in the playtable plan is they got too ambitious. A 2D product would likely have shipped quicker and cheaper, and wouldn’t have introduced as much OMG-it’s-a-video-game confusion early on.